Encounter with an Angel
When I was a child, I asked Jesus to come into my heart, and He did. It felt as though warm water poured into me.
However, as I grew up, I gave heed to the call of society and the mass media, quenching the promptings of the Holy Spirit. At one point, I foolishly came to believe that evolution might be true, in spite of the plethora of evidence to the contrary, which caused me to question all of my beliefs.
After that, I went on a journey to find the truth, which lead me to study Buddhism, Zen, Yoga, Hinduism, Taoism, Islam, etc. The final religion that I studied before God sent some of His servants to bring me back to Him did not refer to itself as a religion, at all. As with all false religions, its public facing image was appealing, but underneath lay demons in wait. Yet, I did not realize it at the time, but God’s Spirit never left me, and He saved me from demonic possession.
During that time, two Christians, at least one of whom prayed regularly, came into my life. We had ongoing discussions, and I started reading the Bible, again. In 2007, I was baptized.
A while later, I moved to San Diego and started attending The Rock Church, there. Probably the best thing about The Rock is its ministry focus. I had always imagined becoming involved in ministry work, but none of the churches that I attended either had ministries to become involved in or, if they did, did not make it easy to volunteer. Thus, prior to The Rock, I did a very few things for God’s Kingdom, usually on my own, never a part of an organized church.
The first time that I volunteered to help out with the Homeless Ministry at The Rock Church, a clean, middle aged gentleman came nearby and quoted from Matthew 25:31-40 to me. I believe that he said something like, “For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink… What you have done for the least of these, my brothers, you have done for me,” but I do not recall the exact quote, anymore. I said something like, “Amen, brother,” and then went back to either talking or whatever I had been previously doing.
Then I turned back to look at the aforementioned man, but he was gone. (I had assumed, by his appearance, that he was a volunteer.) I asked the people beside me if they had seen him, and they did, but no one seemed to know who he was. Furthermore, he seemed, to me, to disappear faster than was possible. (He would have had to walk a long way within the view of everyone in order to exit the park from where he had been.)
I asked the people nearby me if he might of been an angel, and we seemed to agree that he might have been. The question is, whomever he was, why did he deliver such a message to me?
Prior to that, I did pray to God, read His Word and even took a few significant stands for God. However, I basically lived for myself.
Like most people, I lusted after the things of the flesh and became desensitized to all kinds of sin. Money and wealth and self-indulgence most often meant more to me than the Will of God. However, that time when I first helped out at The Rock Church may have been the first time that I worked together with other members of the Body of Christ in order to do something for God’s Kingdom.
God’s Judgment
The quote from Matthew given by the aforementioned unknown servant of God has a lot of significance for each and every person on earth, since Matthew 24:31-46 basically summarizes how God will judge everyone. In a nutshell, the basis of His judgment will be how we treated His (Yeshua’s) brothers and sisters.
In Acts 9:4-5, Yeshua stated to Sha’ul that when he had been persecuting believers in Yeshua that he was litterally persecuting Yeshua, Himself. That same Sha’ul later wrote that we believers in Yeshua are each members of one body, that is Yeshua (e.g., Romans 12:4-5, 1 Corinthians 12:12-31, Galatians 3:28-29, Ephesians 4:11-16).
Thus, when we interact with a fellow believer, we would do best to conduct ourselves as if we are interacting with Yeshua, Himself, since His Word clearly indicates that when we do, we are.
Prayer Requests
- Please pray for Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani who faces possible execution in Iran.
- Please pray for all of our brothers and sisters in Yeshua, especially those who are undergoing persecution.
- Please pray that eyes of the lost people throughout the world will be opened to the Truth of God’s Salvation.
- Please pray that God will break the satanic strongholds and forces of darkness behind Islam.
- Please pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
- Please pray for your country, including your local, regional and national government.
Some Powerful Teachings
Have a great weekend.
God bless, and Shabbat shalom,
Darwin and Ani